{"id":413,"date":"2008-03-02T11:09:41","date_gmt":"2008-03-02T17:09:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/index.php\/2008\/03\/02\/georgie-porgie-porgy-and-bess\/"},"modified":"2008-03-02T14:01:35","modified_gmt":"2008-03-02T20:01:35","slug":"georgie-porgie-porgy-and-bess","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/03\/georgie-porgie-porgy-and-bess\/","title":{"rendered":"Georgie Porgie, Porgy and Bess"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Democrat-Gazette<\/em> published today my review<\/a> of What Orwell Didn\u2019t Know<\/a>: Propaganda and the New Face of American Politics<\/em>, Andras Szanto, editor. I was so excited by this book, even though it was disappointing, that I wrote three Bricks<\/strong> referring to George Orwell. Two of them were on revelations about today from his 1949 novel 1984<\/em>, one considering torture<\/a> and the other more or less on creationism<\/a>. The third provided an opportunity to apply Orwell’s prescient opinion on the military-industry complex, that war<\/a> is good for everyone.<\/p>\n

Full-fledged book reviews are tough to write well. Surprisingly they have not gotten easier. The difficulty here was of direction. The fair way is to give a good paragraph on most if not all of the essays it contained. That’s the point, right, for a collection, to review the points of view? This book had 18 essays, that’s 18 paragraphs, and what’s published today is only 22. Doesn’t sound like much, but my review as published is almost too long by newspaper standards. In fact, it has been cut by about a third (I was gratified that my permission was requested and that the deletions sound) — most of which comprised thoughts on individual pieces.<\/p>\n

The other way to review a book like this is to provide an overview: What is the book about overall and to what extent does it succeed. Interspersed during those two discussions is background material. If I had the space the New York Review of Books<\/a> allots, I could have gotten it all in. It’s tempting to publish the deletions here: how each of the main essays struck me, plus a too-personal recollection of 1984<\/em>‘s impact on me as a young teen. I chose overview, with the item-by-item the concluding section, which made it clearly excisable.<\/p>\n

I see reviews of anything, movies and albums and the rest, as a consumer service first then entertainment. However, a number of critics see what they do as a literary genre. Bully. Bet they wouldn’t interrupt sound reasoning with an original nursery rhyme:<\/p>\n

Georgie Porgie, Porgy and Bess,
\nHated Big Brother, Oh what a mess.
\nPorgy decides to New York he’ll blow,
\nSuch tales “Ain’t Necessarily So.”
\n<\/small>Copyright 2008 Ben S. Pollock<\/small><\/p>\n

A write-up should advise the reader whether they should read the book, see the show or listen to the CD. That requires summary and analysis. Entertainment comes in when the reader enjoys the piece.<\/p>\n

Confession: When I read book reviews — and this does not apply to any other form — I also want to come away with enough knowledge that I do not have to read the book. Sometimes, I will click from an online write-up to the library and put the book on reserve because it sounds like something I want to spend many hours with. The rest of the time the knowledge gained just from the summary is enough to use and even to share. Yes, this applies only to non-fiction. It’s how I got so smart. You can’t grasp from a squib, however, the artistry of a short-story or poetry collection or a novel — just if the literature is to your taste or, better, worth expanding your interests to. Which is the point. -30-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Democrat-Gazette published today my review of What Orwell Didn\u2019t Know: Propaganda and the New Face of American Politics, Andras Szanto, editor. I was so excited by this book, even though it was disappointing, that I wrote three Bricks referring to George Orwell. Two of them were on revelations about today from his 1949 novel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[19,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mr-boo-klist","category-course-of-words"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":399,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/01\/by-george-part-i\/","url_meta":{"origin":413,"position":0},"title":"By George, Part I","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"January 25, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"No, not that George, the other one. Not that George, either. It's not fair to say if George Orwell were alive today, he'd be totally yada yada yada on creation science and intelligent design. But what if Orwell actually wrote about the subject, even though those two terms were not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Course of Words"","block_context":{"text":"The Course of Words","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/course-of-words\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":400,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/01\/by-george-part-ii\/","url_meta":{"origin":413,"position":1},"title":"By George, Part II","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"January 26, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Only some of the essayists in What Orwell Didn't Know: Propaganda and the New Face of American Politics, edited by Andras Szanto for PublicAffairs Books, which I will review soon, think George Orwell (1903-1950) is the man for 2008. After all, their thesis is in the title. Any other George\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Course of Words"","block_context":{"text":"The Course of Words","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/course-of-words\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2224,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2010\/09\/by-george\/","url_meta":{"origin":413,"position":2},"title":"By George","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"September 1, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"With apologies to George Orwell: Winston gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two Victory Gin-scented tears trickled down the sides\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Loose Talk of the Town"","block_context":{"text":"Loose Talk of the Town","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/briefs\/loose-talk-of-town\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2005\/07\/shhh-fight-club\/","url_meta":{"origin":413,"position":3},"title":"Shhh: Fight Club","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"July 10, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Sunday, July 10, 2005. A few days ago I finished \"Fight Club,\" by Chuck Palahniuk, and now have seen the DVD. I've been dancing around reading more of this extraordinary writer since he was interviewed on NPR, mocking their style more acutely than something on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mr. Boo Klist"","block_context":{"text":"Mr. Boo Klist","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/mr-boo-klist\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":830,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2009\/01\/daze-of-days\/","url_meta":{"origin":413,"position":4},"title":"Daze of Days","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"January 20, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Book report: The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare by G.K Chesterton. Thanks, Wall Street Journal. Allan Barra in the Dec. 29, 2008, edition considered this book in its centennial year, with details about the author and his diverse fan base that continues even today. Got it from the library,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mr. Boo Klist"","block_context":{"text":"Mr. Boo Klist","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/mr-boo-klist\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":402,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/01\/the-green-candidate\/","url_meta":{"origin":413,"position":5},"title":"The Green Candidate","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"January 30, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Four years ago Charlie Rose interviewed Garrison Keillor, who said something so provocative that for a detectable millisecond Rose was speechless, a rarity. Keillor of course was on promoting A Prairie Home Companion, but early on they discussed the just-ended 2004 election, where the progressive Keillor nailed John Kerry's defeat\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}